'Bappi Lahiri was looking for a break so he and his father would meet me.' 'I told Director Bhisham Kohli about this promising young boy from Kolkata, and Bappi came over with his harmonium.' 'Bappi played this composition and Bhisham liked it immediately.' 'As we were discussing, I said I would give the words, and that's how I wrote this song.'
'I stood in the line for potty. So there was no extraordinary feeling that I had become a hero.'
'Those were not kind days for a woman with a break-up. The world has changed; today, nobody cares.'
'Earlier, the comedy track used to run parallel to the main story with songs et al.' 'Nowadays, it's just once one scene here and there.'
'Dharmendra was paying a little extra attention to me and she didn't like it.'
Zeenat Aman had scored more hit songs than any of her contemporaries. This can be attributed partly to happenstance and partly to the fact that her forte for high glamour could be showcased most winningly in a crowd-pleasing number, observes Dinesh Raheja.
Dinesh Raheja looks back at Manoj Kumar's brilliant 1964 thriller Woh Kaun Thi, and explains just what made it an audio-visual treat.
'I saw Bimal Roy's Devdas again a few years ago, almost 50 years after it had been made.' 'I found it very intelligently made; the scenes flowed so beautifully.' 'There is just one scene with both Suchitra Sen and me in the film, and it's beautiful.'
'Even today, though my hair looks different, people recognise me wherever I go. They come up and say 'Aap Maine Pyar Kiya mein thi, na?' I think it's going to follow me to the grave.'
Today's Hindi film mothers are younger, trendier, more mischievous. But, truth be told, says Dinesh Raheja, I still do miss sometimes the comforting presence of the trad mother.
Somehow no producer found the right project that would justify casting these two selective stars with each other.
'I didn't like doing jhatak-mataks. I would subconsciously start feeling, 'Oh my God, my makeup man and my driver will be watching this.''
Amitabh Bachchan: 'Success didn't affect me at all.' Rajesh Khanna: 'I felt next to God!'
When you are in love, you are preoccupied just with that.' 'Nothing else registers. It's like being drugged.'
'K Asifsaab was very definite that 'woh Hindustan ka honewala Badshah hai -- woh gana nahin gayega.'
At many stages, it has appeared as though Sunny Deol's career was running out of steam, but each time he has risen Phoenix-like from the ashes. Dinesh Raheja gives us a closer look at the man on his 67th birthday on October 19.
'Dharmendra, Shashi Kapoor and I were inseparable while we struggled together.' 'When a disillusioned Dharmendra was packing his bags to return home, I prevailed upon him to give himself two months.' 'Five days later, he was signed for Shola Aur Shabnam and I signed Picnic.'
These six male megastars have formed popular pairs with two starkly different leading ladies. Dinesh Raheja compares and contrasts the chemistry between the onscreen couples, and asks you, dear reader, to vote for your favourite jodi.
'Reena stayed in the next building. We fell in love but had to meet secretly because her parents didn't approve of me.' 'I would always be afraid that her parents would get her married off to somebody else.'
'Everything in life is about timing.' 'I came to films when the disco craze had started.' Everything just fell into place: The shorts, the slimness, the songs, and my combination with Usha Uthup and Bappi Lahiri.'
'At one time, I felt being a mother was the ultimate experience, a woman was not complete without it.' 'Now I feel it's not the be all and end all. Motherhood is a part of a jigsaw puzzle; life is the real big picture.'
'There was a kind of disagreement with Subhashji after Meri Jung and unfortunately for me, I did not get to work with him again after that.'
Rajesh Khanna: 'When I saw Namak Haram at a trial at Liberty cinema, I knew my time was up.' I told Hrishida, "Here is the superstar of tomorrow".'
Dinesh Raheja salutes a man who lived his life like his last movie, Jab Tak Hai Jaan.
Dinesh Raheja salutes a man who lived his life like his last movie, Jab Tak Hai Jaan.
'Despite his recent resurgence (Listen... Amaya and Lahore for which he won a National Award as Best Supporting Actor), Farooque stayed away from the rat race,' says Dinesh Raheja. 'And to think that in Sai Paranjpye's Katha, he ironically reprised the famous ambitious hare of the Hare and Tortoise story.'
Waheeda Rehman reveals some lesser known facts about Guru Dutt's Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam in an interview excerpt from Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam: The Original Screenplay.
We bring you an excerpt from the book Kaagaz Ke Phool: The Original Screenplay written by Dinesh Raheja and Jitendra Kothari.
From their first meeting to the last, Dev Anand etched himself on Dinesh Raheja's heart and mind.
We look back at the life and times of iconic actor Pran.
'If I got more work, I would do even more! Recently, I did the Tanishq ad.' 'I keep working because I am fit. I love acting, that is my relaxation.'
Dinesh Raheja looks back at the yesteryear actress, who enthralled us in films like Woh Kaun Thi and Mera Saaya.
Though Zanjeer is credited as Amitabh's breakthrough film, it didn't immediately enthrone him. Rajesh Khanna countered with a huge hit in Daag that year. But Deewar upended audience's cinematic taste and filmland hierarchies at the very start of 1975. Bachchan emerged as a one man industry, the angry young man who could regulate the thermostat of the entire film industry, recalls Dinesh Raheja.
